Google E-Bookstore Launch

After a long wait it is finally here. The Google E-Bookstore Launch is here. Bringing over 3 million books to any web enabled device, and a good majority of them are even free.

Previously known as Google Editions, Google set out to offer an alternative way to buy your literature, rather than buying from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple iBook.

Google’s new aim to its e-bookstore is to provide books to any web enabled device, not like Kindle which only allows you to read books via the Kindle app on supported devices. Google lets consumers buy books either from its store or another online bookstore that sells books in EPUB or PDF formats, and read them on any device with a web browser.

A major advantage of being able to take this format from different vendors is that it allows independent booksellers to advertise and sell Google e-books via their own store and take an cut of the revenue.

This unique way of selling books allows consumers to choose whom to purchase their books from on Google’s platform, just as consumers can choose between third-party sellers on Amazon.

But Google’s not done yet, in addition to a Web Reader application, readers will be able to read their Google e-books on apps for Android, iPhone and iPad devices.  Picking up from where you left off will be a breeze, automatically syncing across the whole Google reader network, so you can start reading your book on the bus to work on your iPhone, then when you get home you can relax with your computer and read it there, picking up where you left off.

Initially, nearly 4,000 publishers will be providing content through Google’s E-bookstore at launch, including Random House, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, with many more.